Migration dominates World Press Photo awards

Europe’s migration crisis featured heavily among the winners of this year’s World Press Photo awards, the largest and most prestigious competition honoring photojournalism, announced Thursday.

The World Press Photo of the Year — the jury’s top prize — was awarded to the Australian photographer Warren Richardson, for a haunting image (above) of refugees crossing the border from Serbia to Hungary. Lit only by the moon, a man passes a child through barbed wire.

Judges were taken aback by the stark simplicity of the frame. Jury member Vaughn Wallace, deputy photo editor at Al Jazeera America, said: “His image really caught my eye. It causes you to stop and consider the man’s face, consider the child. You see the sharpness of the barbed wire and the hands reaching out from the darkness. This isn’t the end of a journey, but the completion of one stage of a very long future.”

Here’s our selection of some of the most striking migration-related images that made the winners’ list.

Migrants struggle to climb onto a train headed to Zagreb, the Croatian capital.

A Slovenian police officer on horseback escorts migrants after they crossed from Croatia.

The Italian photographer Francesco Zizola, of Noor Images, was awarded second prize in the contemporary issues category for his work on the migration crisis:

An overcrowded rubber dinghy sailing from the Libyan coast is approached by the Doctors Without Borders search and rescue ship Bourbon Argos in the Mediterranean Sea in August. The migrants on board the dinghy in distress have issued an emergency call and are waiting to be rescued. On the horizon, an offshore oil platform just off the Libyan coast.

Some of the 95 migrants on board a sinking rubber dinghy frantically climb on board a rigid-hulled inflatable boat launched to rescue them by Doctors Without Borders.

Eritrean migrants — the vast majority rescued the day before off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea — gather on the deck of the Doctors Without Borders search and rescue ship Bourbon Argos to attend a service by one of the three priests on board the ship.

After spending two days and nights sailing on the Mediterranean Sea, migrants — still wrapped in their emergency blankets — catch sight of the Italian coast for the first time.

The Slovenian photographer Matic Zorman was awarded first prize in the people category for his touching portrait of a child:

A child wearing a raincoat waits in line to register at a refugee camp in Preševo, Serbia in October.

The Italian photographer Dario Mitidieri was awarded third prize in the same category:

A Syrian refugee family poses for a portrait at a camp in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, in December. The empty chair in the photograph represents a family member who has either died in the war or whose whereabouts are unknown.

The Turkish photographer Bulent Kilic was awarded third prize for his multi-photo story in the spot news category:

Syrians fleeing the war wait to enter Turkey near the border crossing at Akcakale in Sanliurfa province in June.

Syrians fleeing the war rush through broken border fences to enter Turkish territory illegally near the border crossing at Akçakale in Sanliurfa province in June.

A Syrian child fleeing the war is lifted over border fences to enter Turkish territory near the crossing at Akçakale in June.

Islamic State members ask people to return to the city center at the Turkish Akçakale crossing gate in Sanliurfa province in June.